Ex-CJI Chandrachud lauds book for dismantling 'political mythology' of colonial benevolence

New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Friday praised a new book for rigorously dismantling the "political mythology" surrounding British colonial rule in India.

Justice Chandrachud said the colonial rule was portrayed as necessary, reluctant and civilising, rather than as a project of deliberate expansion and exploitation.

He was speaking at the release event of a book by senior advocate and constitutional expert Rakesh Dwivedi titled 'Colonisation, crusade and freedom in India' by Rupa Publications.

The former CJI said, "A careful reading of colonial history across regions reveals that the justificatory patterns (for colonialism) are local or isolated. One repeatedly encounters a language of order, civilisation and progress. Colonial intervention is described as reluctant governance, reporting, responding to disorder, rather than the case of deliberate expansion." Former CJI Chandrachud underlined that such history described pre-colonial societies as lacking coherence or historical continuity, unprepared for self-governance, while the colonial empire was made a reluctant custodian to manage the disorder.

Applauding the book, he said, "What sets this book apart is the method through which the political mythology (of the necessity or benevolence of the British empire) is brought to light. It does not follow a conventional, chronological narrative, nor does it organise the analysis around isolated historical episodes. This approach resembles that of a distinguished senior counsel who is." He said that the author identified recurring propositions across centuries of Imperial writing, and then tested them against evidence drawn from economic history, global geopolitics and comparative colonial experience.

"Each proposition is evaluated in connection with others that serve the same justificatory process, allowing patterns to emerge through structured examination rather than assertion. This method becomes especially visible in the way the book organises a vast body of Imperial writing around three recurring explanatory themes.

"First, that India possessed no meaningful civilisational history, or only a history of successive conquests. Second, that British rule was driven by a moral obligation to civilise. And third, that empire in India emerged accidentally as an unintended consequence of trade and political disorder," the ex-CJI said.

He said the book, instead of dismissing the claims as caricatures were presented in their original form before being subjected to close examination.

"He debunks them with the authority of a learned mind, and the examination that follows is marked by restraint and discipline," the former CJI said about the author.

He said that another notable feature of the book was its disciplined refusal of romanticism by not relying upon the idealised portrayals of the pre-colonial past.

"Its foundation lies instead in demonstrable continuities in institutions, trade, networks and forms of political organisation, along with the recognition that political conquest does not erase civilisational history, the analysis therefore avoids two opposite errors, imperial dismissal on one side, and nationalist simplification on the other; Complexity is preserved even when it unsettles familiar narrative and the structure of the book reflects the instincts of a seasoned lawyer," the former CJI said.

"History is organised around arguments and propositions, rather than around isolated events -- The result is a text that speaks not only to historians, but also to those engaged with law, governance and constitutional interpretation. Political mythology, once recognised, becomes difficult to ignore," he added.

Ex-CJI Chandrachud appreciated the book for shifting the frame through which the country's colonisation was understood.

He said, "The colonial assertion that India lacked a real civilisational history, the proposition that colonial rule was a civilising duty, and the portrayal of empires as an unintended outcome of trade or disorder operate together and reinforce each other (in the book). Each performs a different justificatory role, but all move towards the same result: the displacement of responsibility."

Senior advocate and MP Kapil Sibal, who also spoke at the event, cited a certain page about English intellectuals perpetrating an intellectual fraud by telling the world that they were civilising the colonised barbarians, that Hindustan languished in a state of utter barbarism, and that Hindus were the most enslaved parts of the human race with a general disposition towards deceit and perfidy.

"I just pause here. Deceit and perfidy are very appropriate words, but can be attributed only to the British. They cannot be attributed to our great civilisation. They were deceitful in every sense of the word," he said.

Sibal said that in the 1700s, India's GDP was 25 per cent of the global GDP.

"We were the exporters to the world. We had a huge textile business. We were a maritime power. That is the kind of might we had. And what did we end up with? Hunger, loot, an economy destroyed, and the people subjugated. So the transition that happened was from 1700 to 1947, and the credit for this goes to the uncivilised people of the civilised world," he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also spoke at the event.